Suspect in 27-Year-Old Murder Case Sentenced in Mexico
A man wanted by Santa Barbara authorities since 1988 for shooting another man to death on Punta Gorda Street was sentenced for the crime in his native Mexico late last year. According to Santa Barbara Police Department spokesperson Sgt. Riley Harwood, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office recently notified authorities here that Pedro Alonso Bravo was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the murder.
Under Mexican law, Mexican citizens who are accused of crimes in other countries and flee back home can be arrested and prosecuted in their home country, especially when being convicted of the crime could mean the death penalty in the nation where the crime occurred.
In the late-night hours in September 1988, Bravo, 33 years old at the time, fired several shots at 24-year-old Bernardo Santos Sierra outside of Bravo’s Punta Gorda Street house, after which he ran away to Mexico. In March 2013, the Mexican Attorney General’s Office, working with the SBPD and the California Department of Justice, arrested Bravo in Mexico City on the murder charge.